Each time I attempt to recursively delete a non-empty directory, I am asked to dive into the directory and delete each file. There must be an easier way.

Question: Is the following command inappropriate for deleting a non-empty directory?

_________________
R5.5; PVR-250; FX5200; Dell 4300 with Intel Pentium 4 (1.5 GHz);
BIOS Revision A02; 512MB RAM; 500GB PATA HDD

sure it is.

also may be useful. the -f is 'force' which disables all prompts and just does the rm (where permissions allow)

_________________
R5F1 - Dell P4 2.4Ghz 500MB - PVR250 x 2 - GeForce FX 5200 - Onboard sound/NIC 80GB ATA/250GB ATA/400GB SATA

Hi,

I use the rm -rf frequently myself, HOWEVER, do be careful as it does what you tell it. There are NO questions like "are you sure, really sure?" and then put it a recycle bin.

Mike

Understood. It is a powerful command; not one to be taken lightly. However, if I need to delete a folder with hundreds of files, it seems the only way.

_________________
R5.5; PVR-250; FX5200; Dell 4300 with Intel Pentium 4 (1.5 GHz);
BIOS Revision A02; 512MB RAM; 500GB PATA HDD

You could always



Or leave out the -i if you don't want to be prompted for confirming deletion of each file.

Linux quite annoyingly aliases "rm" to "rm -i" so it prompts you for confirmation. I usually remove the alias.

You could also change it to "rm -fr".

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Hi cesman,

Does the order of the switches actually play a part in the rm command? Also is there limit to the number of files in a directory that can be removed in this manner?

Reason for the question is when using motion, I had to use a special script as the quanity of files reached a certain level. tjc was very kind and provided that script for us (in the motion thread) which would empty the directory and not remove it.

Thanks
Mike

Hello mjl,

I don't know if the order matters. Yes, there is a limit, however I don't know what that is...

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Hi,

Thank you cesman.

I think that ihatetivo may want to search for tjc's motion clean up script as it sounds like that may serve his needs better than the rm command.

It takes a couple of minutes for the script to clean out my motion folder each day however never fails to do exactly that task. A good test is to input tv into motion and let it run for a while. You can gather a lot of files rather quickly to play with Takes forever if you wait for the paperboy.

Mike